1.7. This Book
So where to begin? Well, when it comes to
Asterisk, there is far more to talk about than we can fit into one
book. For now, we're not going to take you down all the roads that
the über-geeks followwe're just going to give you the basics.
In Chapter 1, we cover some
of the engineering considerations you should have in mind when
designing a telecommunications system. You can skip much of this
material if you want to get right to installing, but these are
important concepts to understand, should you ever plan on putting
an Asterisk system into production.
Chapter 2 covers
obtaining, compiling, and installing Asterisk, and Chapter 3
deals with the initial configuration of Asterisk. Here we cover the
important configuration files that must exist to define the
channels and features available to your system. This will prepare
you for Chapter 4, where we
introduce the heart of Asterisk, the dialplan. Having covered
dialplan basics, Chapter 5 introduces some
more advanced dialplan concepts.
We will take a break from Asterisk in Chapter 6,
and discuss some of the more important technologies in use in the
PSTN. Naturally, following the discussion of legacy telephony,
Chapter 7 discusses Voice
over IP.
Chapter 8 introduces one
of the more amazing components, the Asterisk Gateway Interface
(AGI). Using Perl, PHP, and Python, we demonstrate how external
programs can be used to add nearly limitless functionality to your
PBX. In Chapter 9, we briefly
cover what is, in fact, a rich and varied cornucopia of incredible
features and functions, all of which are part of the Asterisk
phenomenon. To conclude, Chapter 10 looks
forward, predicting a future where open source telephony completely
transforms an industry desperately in need of a revolution. You'll
also find a wealth of reference information in the book's five
appendixes.
This book can only lay down the basics, but from
this foundation, you will be able to come to an understanding of
the concept of Asteriskand from that, who knows what you will
build?
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